An Arby’s venison sandwich might strike you as disgusting, but it’s also a stroke of genius. Arby’s CEO Paul Brown has come up with menu innovations like that to drive growth at the once-downtrodden fast food chain.

When the financial crisis hit, Arby’s suffered badly. Sales and margins shrank for three straight years, from 2008 through 2010. The company began offering more promotional deals to dig itself out of a deep hole, but the recovery was slow. In 2010 a JPMorgan analyst said, “Arby's performance is amongst the worst in modern restaurant history."

In 2013, two years after Wendy’s had sold Arby’s to a private equity firm, Paul Brown, former president of Hilton Worldwide, was brought in to attempt a turnaround. Since he became CEO, the chain has grown same-store sales for 14 straight quarters. Top-line sales have jumped by 16% to $3.6 billion, and Arby’s restaurants now have average revenue of $1.1 million, 25% higher than before Brown arrived.